JP2010154863A - Method and apparatus for producing confectionery - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and apparatus for producing confectionery by impregnating potato chips with tempering chocolate, making high quality confectionery having a quzlity equal to that made by a conventional method and apparatus, and at the same time excellent in production efficiency compared to a conventional method and apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: In the method and apparatus for producing the confectionery by impregnating potato chips with tempering chocolate, while deairing only potato chips under a reduced pressure of pressure P1 (0 Mpa<P1≤0.1 Mpa), the potato chips in a deaired condition are immersed into a liquid of tempering chocolate so as to impregnate the potato chips with tempering chocolate. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a confectionery in which tempering chocolate is soaked in potato chips and an apparatus therefor.

  Conventionally, for example, various methods for producing confectionery in which a permeable food material is soaked in a confectionery food material such as rice confectionery food material have been proposed. For example, in Patent Document 1, chocolate melted in liquid and croutons adjusted to the same temperature as chocolate are put in a decompression device and mixed by stirring, and the inside of the decompression device is decompressed to a predetermined pressure to cause bubbles in the croutons and chocolate. A method for producing a chocolate permeation crouton in which chocolate is permeated into croutons by returning the inside of the decompression device to normal pressure after discharging the crucible is disclosed.

Further, Patent Document 2 discloses that a bubble-containing food material such as baked confectionery is buried in a permeable food material such as chocolate dissolved in a liquid, and the bubble-containing food material is deaerated by reducing the pressure in this state. A method for producing a confectionery is disclosed in which an air-permeable food material is impregnated with a permeable food material by returning to pressure.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-308431 International Publication No. WO79 / 47207

  The manufacturing method described above can effectively penetrate the osmotic foodstuff into the foodstuff, and can make an impregnated confectionery having excellent texture, taste, continuous food, and appearance. However, all of these manufacturing methods perform decompression and deaeration treatment in a state where the food is buried in the permeable food, so that it takes time for the bubbles contained in the food to completely escape. Therefore, there was room for improvement in terms of manufacturing efficiency. Incidentally, as described in Patent Document 1, in the case of these production methods, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes for the decompression and deaeration treatment.

  In addition, the bubbles released from the food material float up while expanding in the liquid permeable food material, and are crushed and crushed on the surface of the permeable food material, so that the liquid permeable food material is foamed. For this reason, it is impossible to shift to the next process until the deaeration process is completely completed and a stationary state without foaming is reached, which is one of the factors that reduce the production efficiency.

  The present invention is an improvement of the disadvantages of the above-mentioned conventional method, and can produce a high-quality confectionery equivalent to the conventional one, and at the same time has excellent production efficiency compared to the conventional one, and tempering chocolate with potato chips It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for producing a confectionery soaked with savory.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention takes the following technical means.
That is, the invention according to claim 1 is a method for producing a confectionery in which tempering chocolate is soaked in potato chips, and only the potato chips are placed in a vacuum infiltration device and pressure P1 (0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0.1 Mpa). A method for producing a confectionery comprising a step of immersing the potato chips in a liquid tempering chocolate under the deaerated state while deaerating under reduced pressure, and impregnating the potato chips with the tempering chocolate. is there.

  Further, the invention of claim 2 is a confectionery manufacturing apparatus in which tempering chocolate is soaked in potato chips, the potato chip supply means, the tempering chocolate supply means, and a pressure P1 (0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0). A vacuum infiltration device having a decompression chamber for decompressing to 1 Mpa), the vacuum infiltration device bringing the potato chips introduced from the potato chips supply means into the decompression chamber to a pressure P1 (0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0.1 Mpa). While depressurizing and degassing, supplying tempering chocolate into the vacuum infiltration device, immersing the potato chips in a deaerated state in the tempering chocolate, and making the potato chips soaked with the tempering chocolate to produce a confectionery This is a confectionery manufacturing apparatus.

  In the case of the above configuration, since only the potato chips are degassed under reduced pressure, excess gas such as air contained in the potato chips can be degassed very quickly. Incidentally, in the case of the conventional manufacturing method, as described above, it took about 10 to 15 minutes for the depressurization / deaeration process, but according to the present invention, the same process is completed in about 3 to 4 minutes. be able to. Further, since the degree of decompression and deaeration is reduced, the decompression device, for example, a vacuum pump can be downsized.

  As described above, it is possible to produce a high-quality confectionery equivalent to the conventional one, and at the same time, a method for producing a confectionery in which tempering chocolate is impregnated with potato chips, which is superior in production efficiency compared to the conventional one, and its An apparatus can be provided.

It is a system configuration figure showing one embodiment of the confectionery manufacturing device concerning the present invention constituted by applying the method of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a confectionery manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention configured by applying the method of the present invention. This embodiment shows an example of manufacturing a confectionery in which tempering chocolate is soaked in potato chips.

  In the figure, 1 is a potato chip feeder for supplying potato chips 2, 3 is a tempering chocolate tank, 4 is a tempering chocolate sub-tank, and 5 is a vacuum infiltration device provided with a decompression chamber 6. The tempering chocolate tank 3 and the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 are provided with a heating device (not shown) using hot water, steam, etc., and the tempering chocolate is melted by this heating device and accommodated in a molten state, and tempering. The tempering chocolate in the melt state can be freely fed to the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 by a feeding pump 7 attached to the chocolate tank 3.

  The vacuum infiltration device 5 is capable of freely controlling the pressure in the decompression chamber 6 by a negative pressure pump (not shown) or the like, and melted tempering chocolate from a tempering chocolate supply port 9 provided on the lower side of the decompression chamber. Is supplied from the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 along with the negative pressure in the decompression chamber 6. Further, a recovery pump 10 is attached to the lower bottom portion of the vacuum infiltration device 5 so that excess tempering chocolate remaining after the tempering chocolate permeation processing into the potato chips can be recovered and returned to the sub tank 4. Has been.

  A centrifuge is installed in the vacuum infiltration device 5 to wipe off excess tempering chocolate adhering to the potato chips. On the rear side of the vacuum infiltration device 5, there is a shaking device 11 for further removing excess tempering chocolate adhering to the potato chips, and further on the rear side of the shaking device 11 tempering chocolate. A cooling device 12 for cooling the infused potato chips is arranged.

  The shaking device 11 includes, for example, a vibratory conveyor 13 and an air blower 14. The shaker 11 applies vibration to the potato chips by the vibratory conveyor 13 and blows high-pressure air at a predetermined temperature from the air blower 14. The excess tempering chocolate adhering to is shaken off and collected by a collection tank 15 installed at the bottom. The recovered tempering chocolate is sent to the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 by the recovery pump 16 and reused.

  The cooling device 12 is a cooling mechanism for cooling and solidifying the tempering chocolate that has penetrated and adhered to the potato chips, and includes a cooling chamber 17 and a belt conveyor 18 passing through the cooling chamber 17. In the cooling chamber 17, a known water-cooling or air-cooling type cooling mechanism (not shown) is provided, and the cooling process is completed while passing through the cooling chamber 17.

  To make potato chips soaked with tempering chocolate using the above apparatus, the following steps are taken. First, a basket 19 for storing potato chips made of wire mesh or the like is prepared, and a predetermined number of potato chips 2 are put into the basket 19 from the potato chip feeder 1 and placed side by side at predetermined intervals.

  Then, the basket 19 in which the potato chips 2 are put is carried to the vacuum infiltration device 5, the lid of the decompression chamber 6 is opened, and the basket 19 is set in the decompression chamber 6. The above processing may be performed automatically using a conveyor or a pickup mechanism, or may be performed manually.

  After the basket 19 containing the potato chips 2 is set in the decompression chamber 6, the lid of the decompression chamber 6 is closed, and a negative pressure pump (not shown) is operated to evacuate the air in the decompression chamber 6. The pressure P1 is reduced to 0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0.1 Mpa. The pressure P1 is set according to the type of potato chips, the water content, and the ratio of bubbles.

  As the pressure in the decompression chamber 6 decreases, the air entering the internal space of the potato chips 2 placed in the basket 19 is sucked out. At this time, in the present invention, only the potato chips are put in the decompression chamber 6 and are not buried in the viscous tempering chocolate as in the prior art, so the air entering the internal space of the potato chips 2 is extremely It is quickly degassed. For this reason, the deaeration of the potato chips is almost completed while the inside of the decompression chamber 6 is decompressed to a predetermined negative pressure state, and the time required for the decompression / deaeration process can be greatly shortened.

  When the decompression of the decompression chamber 6 and the deaeration of the potato chips 2 are completed as described above, the negative pressure pump is stopped and the interior of the decompression chamber 6 is maintained in the decompressed state. In this state, the molten tempering chocolate is fed from the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 into the decompression chamber 6 from the tempering chocolate supply port 9 of the vacuum infiltration device 5, and the potato chips 2 in the deaerated state are fed to the molten tempering chocolate. The potato chips 2 are immersed in the tempering chocolate.

  When the degassed potato chips 2 are immersed in the melted tempering chocolate, the melted tempering chocolate quickly penetrates into the internal space of the potato chips 2, and the tempering chocolate is evenly and effectively applied to the potato chips 2. Can be soaked. At this time, since the potato chips have already been degassed, the degassed air becomes bubbles and rises in the tempering chocolate as in the conventional case, and the tempering chocolate surface pops and foams, There is no such thing.

  When the tempering chocolate has been infiltrated into the potato chips, stop the pressure control. The excess tempering chocolate accumulated in the decompression chamber 6 is discharged by the recovery pump 10 and returned to the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 for reuse.

  The lid of the decompression chamber 6 is opened and the basket 19 is taken out. The potato chips 2 soaked with tempering chocolate are taken out from the basket 19 and placed on the shaking device 11. The basket 19 can be taken out and the potato chips 2 can be placed manually, or can be automatically processed by a robot device or the like.

  In the shaking device 11, the potato chips 2 are vibrated while being vibrated by the vibration conveyor 13, and the high-pressure air of a predetermined temperature is blown from the air blower 14, so that the extra potato chips 2 adhered to the potato chips 2. Remove the tempering chocolate. The tempering chocolate that has been wiped off is collected in the tempering chocolate collection tank 15 disposed on the lower side, and is sent back to the tempering chocolate sub-tank 4 by the collection pump 16 for reuse.

  The potato chips 2 from which excess tempering chocolate has been shaken off are sent to the cooling device 12. The cooling device 12 blows cold air toward the potato chips 2 to cool and solidify the tempering chocolate that has penetrated into the internal gaps of the potato chips 2 and the tempering chocolate adhering to the surface of the potato chips 2 and send them to the subsequent product packaging process. . As described above, potato chips soaked with tempering chocolate can be produced.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Potato chips supply machine 2 Potato chips 3 Tempering chocolate tank 4 Tempering chocolate sub tank 5 Vacuum infiltration device 6 Decompression chamber 7 Feeding pump 9 Tempering chocolate supply port 10 Recovery pump 11 Shaking device 12 Cooling device 13 Vibrating conveyor 14 Air blower 15 Tempering Chocolate recovery tank 16 Recovery pump 17 Cooling chamber 18 Belt conveyor 19 Basket

Claims (2)

A method for producing a confectionery in which tempering chocolate is soaked in potato chips,
While only the potato chips are put in a vacuum infiltration device and deaerated under a reduced pressure of pressure P1 (0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0.1 Mpa), the potato chips are immersed in a liquid tempering chocolate under the deaerated state. A method for producing a confectionery comprising the step of impregnating the potato chips with the tempering chocolate.   An apparatus for producing confectionery in which tempering chocolate is soaked in potato chips, the potato chips supplying means, the tempering chocolate supplying means, and a decompression chamber for reducing pressure to P1 (0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0.1 Mpa) A vacuum permeation device, wherein the vacuum permeation device decompresses and degass the potato chips introduced into the decompression chamber from the potato chips supply means to a pressure P1 (0 Mpa <P1 ≦ 0.1 Mpa). A confectionery manufacturing apparatus, wherein tempering chocolate is supplied into an apparatus, the potato chips in a deaerated state are immersed in the tempering chocolate, and the potato chips are soaked with the tempering chocolate to manufacture a confectionery. .

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